Frank Zappa called it a “teenage recording session.” In July of 1968, Zappa and his Mothers of Invention commandeered the famed Whisky A Go Go on the Sunset Strip for five hours of musical mayhem that was, indeed, recorded and now surfacing as a three-CD, three-hour extravaganza. Had Zappa simply spent five hours in a Los Angeles recording studio one summer night, he would’ve for sure made some great music; at the Whisky, he made history.

Zappa dug the Whisky, a bit of a neighborhood club just down the hill from his Laurel Canyon hang that doubled as one of the more prominent venues in the world at the time- from Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix to the Grateful Dead and the Doors- giving a stage to some of the scene’s most notable artists. Zappa advertised the evening as a recording session, and fans lined the Strip to be a part of it. There were some VIPs mixing in, too, as Zappa calls from the stage to John Mayall, and members of The Turtles and The Rolling Stones, not to mention madcap performances by Alice Cooper and Zappa’s girls of invention, the GTOs, that join in the fun.

It’s a jam-heavy three sets, as Zappa and the Mothers alternate between long stretches of improvisation and nods to early rock-and-roll and doo-wop stylings, including a “Plastic People” that layers its sardonic lyrics over the tune to “Louie Louie,” in one of the more pop-oriented movements. More often, though, the session is a whirling display of serious musicianship and theatrical exercises, with Zappa trying out new songs- with two takes of the debuting “The Duke”- and new ways to entertain the packed Whisky, including singalongs with the GTOs and a rendition of “God Bless America” on kazoo.

Two particularly shining highlights are the two-part undertaking of “King Kong,” and the third-set drone of “The Whip”- the latter serving as a kind of Ravel-meets-Marquis de Sade set to music. Unique, fascinating, irreverent, and intoxicating. In other words, archetypical Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in July of ’68 on a wild night at the Whisky.